Super Hero Of The Week, 7/31/12

Super Hero Of The Week:

Falcon (Marvel Comics)

The Falcon is a fictional character, a comic book superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Alter ego: Samuel Thomas "Sam" Wilson

Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, and introduced in Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969), the character is mainstream comics' first African-American superhero. Marvel's previously introduced Black Panther is African, a native of the fictional country Wakanda. The Falcon followed the company's first African-American co-starring character, the non-superpowered World War II soldier Gabe Jones, and first regular supporting character, The Amazing Spider-Man as Joe Robertson. The Falcon debuted nearly three years before Luke Cage, Marvel's first African-American series star, and almost six years before the African character Storm, the first black female. The Falcon is also the first superhero of African descent not to have the word "black" as part of his superhero name, preceding the John Stewart Green Lantern by over two years. (The first African-American starring character in comics is Dell Comics'Old West gunfighter Lobo, introduced in 1965.)

Abilities

Empathic link with pet falcon
Ability to see through the eyes of nearby birds
Flight
Skilled martial artist and gymnast

Bio:

Samuel Thomas Wilson was born in Harlem, New York City, to Paul Wilson, a prominent minister, and Darlene Wilson. Wilson has a happy childhood and finds he has a natural affinity for birds. He takes up training pigeons, and has the largest pigeon coop in Harlem. In his teens, however, encounters with racism leave him jaded. When he is 16, Wilson refuses to join the church, believing his deeply religious parents to be ignorant for their faith. To his surprise, rather than put up a fight, his parents provide him with books on different religions and comparative theology. The next night, however, Sam's father is killed trying to break up a neighborhood fight. Two years later, his mother is shot and killed by a mugger one block from their apartment. Consumed by grief and "angry at the world" Sam turns his back on his past as a respected community volunteer. He moves to Los Angeles and creates a new persona: "Snap" Wilson, a professional criminal, gang member, and pimp.

While "Snap" is on his way to "a big score in Rio de Janeiro", his plane crashes on Exile Island (years later, he would say "I actually loved this place quite a bit. It's where I met my two best friends," referring to Captain America and Redwing). The once-peaceful island had been taken over by the Exiles, a group of would-be world conquerors who had collaborated with the Nazi supervillain the Red Skull during World War II. More recently, they had been betrayed by the Red Skull, and were forced to remain in hiding on the island, enslaving the natives. Wilson finds and befriends Redwing, a falcon which he feels a remarkably strong bond with.

The Red Skull uses the Cosmic Cube, a creation that allows its user to alter reality, to mentally fuse Wilson with Redwing, creating a "super-normal mental link" that would, with time and concentration, give Wilson broad powers over all birds. Next, the Skull uses the Cube to rewrite the past and remove the years Wilson had spent angrily living as "Snap". In this new history, Wilson was an upright and cheerful social worker who is eventually lured to the Exiles' island and organizes the natives to fight for their freedom. Steve Rogers (Captain America) befriends him there and convinces Wilson to adopt a persona to inspire the natives in their rebellion. The two create the costumed persona the Falcon, and train together extensively before attacking and defeating the Exiles and the Red Skull. The Falcon becomes Captain America's regular partner in crime-fighting, and briefly even takes on the Captain America costume and identity when Rogers is believed to have been killed.

Later, again as the Falcon, Wilson receives help from the Black Panther, who creates a harness for Wilson, allowing him to fly. When Rogers briefly abandons his Captain America identity, others attempt to take up the mantle, including a young man named Roscoe whom the Falcon mentors. When the Red Skull eventually kills Roscoe, Rogers again becomes Captain America.

Soon afterward, the Red Skull reveals the Falcon's true past as "Snap" Wilson, and unsuccessfully attempts to use the Cosmic Cube to make the Falcon kill Captain America. Now aware of his past but deciding to continue as a hero, the Falcon is eventually named head of the Super Agents at the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D..

^{Via Wikipedia}